There are a number of medical and diagnostic procedures, such as angiography, CAT scans, various x-rays, thallium-201 imaging scans, cardiac catheterization, nuclear medicine procedures, etc. which require the patient to remain relatively immobile, in a supine position, with the arms upraised behind the head so that they will not obstruct the studies being done. Of course, it is difficult for a supine patient lying on a flat table such an x-ray table to keep his/her arms upraised in the desired position for a prolonged period of time without shifting or moving them. Yet, some of the procedures requiring this positioning take a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes, or even longer, to complete. Studies done of patients undergoing thallium-201 myocardial SPECT imaging, for example, have shown that patient movement is a serious and common problem which has been recognized in the literature as a significant source of artifactual defects on tomographic reconstructions. It has even been proposed to compensate for patient movements during such thallium studies by shifting the images spatially (pixel by pixel) according to the degree of shift observed on the summated point source image. See, for example, "Patient Motion in Thallium-201 Myocardial SPECT Imaging: An Easy Identified Frequent Source of Artifactual Defect," Friedman J., Berman D. S., Van Train K, et al, Chemical Nuclear Medicine 1988:13: 321-4; "Effect of Patient Motion on Tomographic Myocardial Perfusion Imaging," Cooper J., Neuman P., and McCandless B., Journal of Nuclear Medicine 1992: 8:1566-1571, and "Sensitivity of SPECT Thallium-201 Myocardial Perfusion Imaging to Patient Motion," Eisner R., Journal of Nuclear Medicine 1992: 8:1571-1575 for discussion of the problem and proposed solutions.
While various arm cradles have been improvised to hold the arms during those procedures, they have proved awkward and unsatisfactory in use. For example, Siemen Corporation markets a product known as a "Cath Cradle" which is used to restrain a patient's arms above the head; however, it permanently mounts to a Siemen table and does not have universal applicability.
Of course, other various medical restraints and patient supports are known in the prior art for positioning patients while they are being subjected to various medical procedures. U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,045,678; 4,156,145; 4,698,837; 4,669,106; and 5,090,044 illustrate such devices. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,754 discloses an M-shaped positioning device suitable in veterinary applications for restraining animals during radiographical procedures. While some of the devices disclosed in the above-listed patents are useful for various purposes, none of them are suitable for positioning the upraised arms of a patient lying in a supine position.
Hence, there is a need for a device which positions the arms of a supine patient in an upraised position and supports the arms in that position during prolonged radiographic and other studies. Furthermore, there is a need for such a device which is simple to manufacture, easy to use, and comfortable for the patient, and which can universally be adapted for use with a variety of medical studies without the necessity of otherwise altering the equipment.